ACADEMIC CORRELATES OF TAIWANESE SENIOR HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS' HAPPINESS

Su-Yen Chen and Luo Lu

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relation between academic factors and senior highschool students' general happiness using a nationally representative sampleof 11,06111th graders in Taiwan. Pearson correlation analyses indicated thatEnglish teacher-perceived academic performance, mathematics teacher-per-ceived academic performance, teacher academic support, classmate academicsupport, organizational processes, and school satisfaction were positively re-lated to students' general happiness,while disturbance in class was negativelyrelated. Regression analysis found that objective academic achievement, math-ematics teacher-perceived academic achievement, classmate academic sup-port, disturbance in class, organizational processes, and most importantly,students^ overall appraisals of their own happiness with school helped predictstudents' general happiness, account for 18.4% of the total variance. Amongthese variables, objective academic achievement and disturbance in class werenegatively associated with general happiness. Some of the study's findings areconsistent with those in the literature and some extend established accounts,while others point to future research directions.

Throughout the past century, psychologists have focused mainly ondepression, anxiety, and conduct disorders of adolescents while ne-glecting positive mental health. Only relatively recently has there beehincreasing interest in positive psychology, and more researchers arestarting to examine adolescents' life satisfaction and its correlates andpredictors (Gibnan & Huebner, 2003). Similar to findings in studies ofadults, most adolescents report positive levels of life satisfaction (Ca-sas, Alsinet, Rossich, Huebmer, & Laughlin, 2001; Greenspoon &Saklofske, 1997; Huebner, Frane, & Valois, 2000; Leung & Zhang,2000; Neto, 1993). In a review study. Suido, Riley, and Shaffer (2006)

Part of the research framework of this paper was taken from the first au-thor's research project sponsored by the National Science Council Taiwan(grant number NSC 98-2410-H-007-004r-^MY2).

Luo Lu, Ph.D., Department of Business Administration, National TaiwanUniversity, Taiwan.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Su-Yen Chen, Ph.D., Center forTeacher Education, National Tsing Hua University, 101, Sec. 2 Kuang-FuRd., Hsinchu, TAIWAN 30013. E-MAIL: suychen@mx.nthu.edu.tw

ADOLESCENCE, Vol. 44, No. 176, Winter 2009Libra Publishers, Inc., 3089C Clairemont Dr., PMB 383, San Diego, CA 92117

indicated that most research on adolescents' life satisfaction has exam-ined the roles of family functioning and intrapersonal variables, butfew studies have researched life satisfaction in relation to schoolmg.Moreover, the existing literature regarding söhool-related variablesand life satisfaction has investigated only one or a few academic factorsin isolation. Therefore, the present study extends the previous litera-ture and examines the relation between academic factors and highschool students' general happiness more coniprehensively using a na-tionally representative sample in Taiwan.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Since the linkage between academic factors and youngsters' happi-ness is relatively unexplored in the literature of Taiwan, the ensuingWestern literature and studies on Chinese adolescent students contrib-uted to our initial understanding of the relations among academicachievement, class-level and school-level academic-related factors, stu-dents' overall school satisfaction, and adolescents' general happiness.

Academic Achievement and HappinessMany studies have included objective academic achievement (e.g.,

test scores, school grades) and/or students' self-perceived academicachievement (e.g., self-concept of academic performance, self-evaluatedacademic competence, academic self-efficacy) as a variable when in-vestigating correlates or predictors of adolescents' Ufe satisfaction.While self-perceived academic achievement consistently has beenfound to play an important role in students' general happiness, find-ings on objective academic achievement and global life satisfactionhave been inconclusive.

Kirkcaldy, Fumham, and Siefen (2004) investigated the relation be-tween educational performance in reading, mathematical, and scien-tific literacy as assessed in the Programme for International StudentAssessment (PISA) survey and the health performance indicators ofthe World Health report with data from 30 nations. They found apositive relation between happiness, as measured by Veenhooven'shappiness scale, and the three literacy scores, with the magnitude ofthe association being greatest for reading. However, Huebner (1991)found that grades from the most recent report card were not associatedsignificantly with global life satisfaction of 79 students in grades 5-7of a rural school district in the Midwest region of the United States.

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Two studies have taken both ohjective and self-perceived academicachievement into consideration when examining adolescents' generalhappiness. Cheng and Fumham (2002) investigated the extent towhich peer relations, self-confidence, and school performance corre-lated with happiness among 90 students aged 16 to 18 in the UnitedKingdom. A correlation analysis showed that hoth actual school gradesand self-confidence in terms of academic performance were signifi-cantly related to general happiness, hut the relation with the latterwas stronger. In addition, a series of hierarchical regression analysesrevealed that self-confidence in terms of academic performance was asignificant predictor of happiness, hut school grades were not. Chang,McBride-Chang, Stewart, and Au (2003) explored hoth developmen-tally invariant and variable predictors of life satisfaction among 115second-graders and 74 eighth-graders from Hong Kong. Academic self-concept was found to predict life satisfaction equally strongly in adoles-cents and children, but test scores were more predictive of children'sthan adolescents' life satisfaction. In other words, both studies sug-gested self-perceived academic achievement to be more predictive ofadolescents' happiness than objective academic achievement.

The impact of self-perceived academic perfonnance on adolescents'life satisfaction was supported by two other studies. Leung, McBride-Chang, and Lai (2004) investigated the relations among maternal con-cern and restrictiveness, self-evaluated academic competence, and lifesatisfaction in a short-term, longitudinal study of 346 seventh-gradestudents from Hong Kong. Using structural equation modehng, theresearchers found that adolescents' perceived maternal concerns andperceived academic competence significantly predicted life satisfactionover time. Suido and Huebner (2005) examined whether extremelyhigh hfe satisfaction was associated with adaptive or maladaptivefunctioning among 698 students from three middle schools and twohigh schools in a rural public school district in a Southeastern state ofthe United States. They found that adolescents with very high lifesatisfaction reported significantly higher levels of academic self-effi-cacy than their peers with life satisfaction in the average range.

School Climate, School Satisfaction, and HappinessSamdal, Nutbeam, Wold, and Kannas (1998) examined the relation

between school climate and school satisfaction with data from 11-, 13-,and 15-year-old students in Finland, Latvia, Norway, and Slovakia.'Among school chmate factors (e.g., teacher support, student support,disturbances in class, unreasonable job demands, justice in school,safety in the school environment, bullying, and loneliness during

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breaks), they found the strongest predictors of students' satisfactionwith school to be organized process factors (e.g., justice in school andsafety in the school environment) and teacher support, followed bystudent support and disturbances in class. However, the linkage be-tween adolescents' school satisfaction and their general happiness wasnot explored in this study.

Other studies have identified certain school cUmate factors as beingassociated with adolescents' general happiness. Suido and Huebner(2005) found that, in addition to the factor of academic self-efficacymentioned earlier, very high life satisfaction also co-occurred with highsocial support from both classmates and teachers. Moreover, the effectsize associated with support from classmates was twice as large asthat for support from a close friend. Nativig, Albrektsen, and (^ams-trom (2003) explored the association between happiness and experi-ence of stress at school, as well as personal and social factors among887 Norwegian school adolescents aged 10-15. Similarly, they foundteacher social support and peer social support to be positively relatedto happiness; moreover, support from teachers seemed to he more im-portant than support from other students. In an earlier study, Wentzel(1998) also found academic support from teachers and peers to be re-lated to adolescents' interest in school among 167 sixth-graders in asuhurhan community of the United States.

In sum, researchers have foimd academic achievement and schoolclimate to be associated with adolescents' happiness, or Ufe satisfac-tion, which has served as a proxy for happiness. As a secondary analy-sis on national data in Taiwan, the present study investigated howobjective academic achievement, teacher-perceived academic achieve-ment, teacher academic support, classmate academic support, distur-bances in class, and organizational processes, as well as students'overall school satisfaction, predict Taiwanese 11th graders' generalhappiness.

METHOD

Sample and Data CollectionThe Taiwan Educational Panel Survey (TEPS) is a multistage, stra-

tified sample survey of Taiwanese high school students, jointly sup-ported by Academia Sinica, the Ministry of Education, the NationalAcademy for Educational Research, and the National Science Councilin Taiwan (Chang, 2003). By using clustered, multistage, stratifiedprobability sampling, high schools in Taiwan were classified according

982 '

to geographical location, metropolitan/rural area, and public/privateschool. Then, within each school, four classes were selected, and withineach class, 15 students were selected. The national data set used inthis study was collected in 2005 and released in 2007 as the thirdwave—the new panel. The sample included 11,061 11th graders from260 senior high schools classified according to geographical location,metropolitan/rural area, and school tjrpes. The sample consisted of50% males.

For the purpose of this study, data from students' and their teachers'questionnaires were used. In the TEPS student questionnaire, theywere asked to answer questions regarding their background: daily en-gagement, family life, school life, and extracurricular activities. In thisstudy, information regarding teacher academic support, classmate aca-demic support, disturbance in class, organizational processes, schoolsatisfaction, and general information on students' happiness were alldraAvn from the students' questionnaires. In addition, students com-pleted a series of ability tests, with the composite test score serving astheir objective academic achievement. In the TEPS teacher question-naire, Chinese, English, and mathematics teachers were asked to re-port on their teaching methods and materials, teaching environment,grading, and perceived academic performance of individual studentsin the subject they taught. The last section on perceptions of individualstudents' academic performance was utilized in this study to provideinformation on teacher-perceived academic achievement.

MeasuresGeneral happiness. This was measured by a single item: "Taking all

things together, would you say you have a happy life these days?"Participants were asked to respond to a 4-point Likert scale (rangingfrom 4 = very happy through 1 = not happy at all).

Objective academic achievement. This was measured by four curricu-lum-free ability subtests on analjrtical thinking, mathematics, lan-guage, and science. The four scores were combined into a composite,with higher scores signifying better educational achievement.

Teacher-perceived academic achievement. Three teacher-perceivedacademic achievement ratings were obtained from teachers of Chinese,English, and mathematics, the three subject areas considered to be ofutmost importance in Taiwan's secondary schools. Respondents wereasked to rate a specific student's performance in the subject they teachcompared to other students in the class (rated on a 4-point scale with4 = much better than other students and 1 = much worse thanother students).

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Teacher academic support. This was measured by a sum score ofsix variables ("Teachers can recall every student's name"; 'Teachersreinforce hard-working students"; "Teachers utilize various methodsto help students learn"; "Teachers assign homework frequently";"Teachers make sure students finish their homework"; and "Teachersdiscuss and explain after a test"). The internal consistency analysesfor this sum score 3delded a Cronbach's a of .68. The response catego-ries were (1) true for most teachers, (2) true for at least half of theteachers, (3) true for some teachers, and (4) true for none of theteachers.

Classmate academic support. This was measured by a sum score ofsix variables ("My classmates study and discuss homework togetherfrequently'; "My classmates are academically competitive with eachother"; "My classmates discuss entering a higher institution fre-quentlj^'; "My classmates go to exhibitions and speeches outside ofschool together frequently '̂; "My classmates initiate conversation withteachers outside of the classroom frequently'; and "My classmatescome from good socioeconomic backgrounds"). Internal consistencyanalyses for this sum score yielded a Cronbach's a at .71. Participantswere asked to respond on a 4-point Likert scale (ranging from 4 =strongly agree through 1 = strongly disagree).

Disturbance in class. This was measured by the sum of three vari-ables ("Teachers often loudly ask students to be quiet or punish stu-dents"; "Teachers frequently ignore whether students are engaging intheir teaching"; and Teachers spend most of the time talking aboutnon-academic topics or dealing with class disturbances"). Internal con-sistency analyses for this sum score yielded a Cronbach's a pf .61. Theresponse categories were (1) true for most teachers, (2) true for at leasthalf of the teachers, (2) true for some teachers, and (4) true for noneof the teachers.

Organizational process. This was measured by a sum of six variables("The rules are not fair in school"; "The grading is not fair in school";"The school does not show interest in the students"; "The rules arestrict in school"; "I do not feel safe at school"; and "The learning atmo-sphere is not good in school"). Internal consistency analyses for thissum score yielded a Cronhach's a of .73. Participants were asked torespond on a 4-point Likert scale (ranging from strongly agree tostrongly disagree).

School satisfaction. This was measured by the sum of four variables("School is a place I can learn things"; "School is a place for makingfriends"; "Going to school is boring"; and "School is a happy place").

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Internal consistency analyses for this sum score yielded a Cronbach'sa of .67. Participants were asked to respond on a 4-point Likert scale(ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree).

RESULTS

When Taiwanese 11th graders were asked, "Taking all things to-gether, would you say you have a happy life these days?" their re-sponses were 2.5% very unhappy, 11.6% not quite happy, 66.5% quitehappy, and 19.3% very happy {M = 3.03, SD = 0.64).

Table 1 summarizes the intercorrelations among the academicachievement factors, school factors, school satisfaction, and Taiwanese11th graders' general happiness. For academic achievement, Pearsoncorrelation analyses indicated that English teacher-perceived andmathematics teacher-perceived acadeinic performance correlated sig-nificantly with general happiness, but Cliinese teacher-perceived aca-demic performance and objective academic achievement did not. Allschool climate factors, however, correlated significantly with generalhappiness. While teacher academic support, classmate academic sup-port, and organizational processes were positively related to generalhappiness, disturbance in class was negatively related to that variable.In addition, overall school satisfaction was significantly related to gen-eral happiness. It is important to note that almost all the independentvariables were significantly correlated with each other.

Four sets of regression analyses were employed to determine howacademic achievement variables, class-level academic-related vari-ables, school-level variables, and school satisfaction help explain Tai-wanese 11th graders' level of general happiness, as shown in Table 2.In the first model, among the academic achievement variables, onlymathematics teacher-perceived academic achievement significantlyentered the equation to predict general happiness. In the second model,among the academic achievement variables and class-level academic-related variables, objective academic achievement, mathematicsteacher-perceived academic achievement, teacher academic support,classmate academic support, and disturbances in class significantlyentered the equation. In the third model, the school-level variable oforganizational process also significantly entered the equation. Finally,in thé last model, in addition to objective academic achievement, math-ematics teacher-perceived academic achievement, classmate academicsupport, disturbances in class, and organizational process, school satis-faction also significantly entered the equation to predict general happi-

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1.

2.

3.

4.

5

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

1

1

.008

.010

.024*

.048"'

.135*"

.158*"

-.108*

.188*"

.415"*

Table 1

2

1

.210*"

.208*"

.311*"

.061*"

.138*"

-.152"•

.168*"

.149*"

1 Correlations3

1

.342*"

.284*"

.058***

.044***

-.131"

.096*"

.066*"

4

1

.315"

.039***

.080***

-.122"

.104*"

.077***

Among Research Variables5

1

•.033"

.059***

-.099**

•

.080"*

.094"*

6

1

.322*"

-.239"

*

.230*"

.239*"

7

I

-.148"

.206*"

.295***

8

1

-.416"

-.231"

9

1

.370*** 1

*p<.05 ** p<.01

Note. Variable numbers refer to the following: 1. Generalhappiness, 2. Objective academic achievement, 3. Chineseteachers' perceived academic achievement, 4. English teachers'perceived academic achievement, 5. Mathematic teachers'perceived academic achievement, 6. Teacher academic support, 7.Classmate academic support, 8. Disturbance in class, 9.Organizational process, 10. School satisfaction.

ness, accounting for 18.4% of the total variance. It is interesting tonote that in the last model, when school satisfaction was added,teacher academic support did not significantly enter the equation asit did in the previous two models, and disturbance in class, classmateacademic support, and organizational process all entered the equationwith a smaller effect than the same variables in the previous two mod-els. Another interesting finding was that even though objective aca-

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Table 2 Regression Analyses Predicting TaiwaneseSenior-High-School Students' General Happiness

Variable

Objective academic achievement

Chinese teachers' perceived academic

achievement

English teachers' perceived academic

achievement

Mathematic teachers' perceived academic

achievement

Teacher academic support

Classmate academic support

Disturbance in class

Organizational process

Schooi satisfaction

R Square

F(df)

Model 1

.001

-.008

.001

.037"

.002

3.548"

(4,7791)

Model 2

-.020*

-.020

-.012

.035**

.045***

.079***

-.065***

.044

50.632"*

(7,7788)

Model 3

-.029***

-.024

-.013

.036*"

.034"*

.069***

-.031*"

.097***

.061

63.783*"

(8.7787)

Model 4

-.042***

-.024

-.014

.025"

.009

.024**

-.016*

.027***

.249*"

.184

195.101*"

(9,7786)

*p < .03 **p<.01 ''**p<.001

demie achievement did not significantly enter the equation in the firstmodel, it hecame a significant predictor when other variables wereadded and taken into consideration together in the second, third, andlast models.

DISCUSSION

Consistent with results from earlier studies on adolescents' globallife satisfaction, this study s findings revealed positive levels of generalhappiness for Taiwanese adolescents. For example, while in South Car-

987

olina, 73% of the 5,545 public junior high school students rated theirglobal life satisfaction in a positive way, ranging from "mostly satis-fied" to "delighted" (Huebner, Frane, & Valois, 2000), 85.8% of theTaiwanese 11th graders in the present study rated their general happi-ness in a positive way, ranging from "quite happ^' to "very happy."Compared to the 1,099 Chinese junior high school students in gradesseven to nine in Hong Kong who reported an average rating of 4.31(SD = 1.09) on a 7-point Likert scale of global life satisfaction (Leung &Zhang, 2000), the Taiwanese students in this study reported an aver-age rating of 3.03 {SD = .640) on a 4-point Likert scale of general hap-piness.

Academic AchievementIn this study, a Pearson correlation analysis revealed that objective

academic achievement, assessed by a composite score of ability sub-tests for anal}^ical thinking, mathematics, language, and science, wasnot significantly related with Taiwanese 11th graders' general happi-ness, a result consistent with Huebner's (1991) findings with Americanadolescents, but inconsistent with Cheng and Fxomham's (2002) find-ings on English youth. However, further regression analyses revealedthat objective achievement was a significant predictor of general happi-ness when other academic factors were also taken into consideration.Specifically, regression £inalysis shows that, with relevant teacher-per-ceived academic factors, school climate factors, and the school satisfac-tion variable constant, the composite test score helps explain thegeneral happiness of Taiwanese senior high school students. Actually,this study's finding that the composite test score was negatively associ-ated with general happiness is puzzling, because it is generally incon-sistent with results from Western studies.

Even though researchers in Taiwan have not directly explored therelation between academic achievement and happiness, Yang (2005),who investigated the value of educational achievement and adoles-cents' mental health with an earlier data set also collected by theTEPS, found higher objective academic achievement to. be associatedwith worse mental health until the achievement was high, where thedownward trend stopped and curved up only very slightly. Similarly,Chen and Lu (in press), who examined the effects of after-school timeuse on later educational achievement and mental health, respectively,with the TEPS data set, found higher objective academic achievementto be associated with poorer later mental health in a zero-order correla-tion analysis, while objective academic achievement was not a signifi-cant predictor for later mental health when backgroimd and after-

988

school activity variables were taken into consideration. In another in-dependent study with Taiwanese adolescents, researchers found thatobjective academic achievement (indexed by school test scores) waspositively associated with better self-concepts in certain areas, but notwith overall self-satisfaction, which may be regarded as a proxy forhappiness (Lu & Lin, 2003).

Both Yang's (2005) and Chen and Lu's (in press) findings seem to beconsistent with the general impression, which has been well acknowl-edged in Taiwzmese society, that academically more proficient studentsare more likely to feel pressured toward educational competition andtherefore are more likely to have depressive symptoms. LiU and Lin's(2003) results, in contrast, reveal more complexity in projecting a rela-tion between achievement and well-being. Does the culturally uniquephenomenon explain the lack of relation, or even negative relation,between objective academic achievement and general well-being? Fur-ther research in this__area is recommended.

Unlike objective academic achievement and general happiness, therelation between self-perceived academic achievement and generalhappiness has been well established in previous studies (e.g., Changet al., 2003; Cheng & Fumham, 2002: Leung et al., 2004; Suido &Huebner, 2005). The present study adds a new dimension to the litera-ture by investigating the relation between teacher-perceived academicachievement and general happiness. The Pearson correlation analysisshows that both mathematic and English teachers' perceived academicachievement were significantly related to students' level of generalhappiness; but the regression analysis found that only mathematicsteachers' perceived mathematics achievement contributed to students'general happiness when other academic factors were taken into consid-eration. In other words, how mathematics teachers evaluate an indi-vidual student was a significant predictor of the student's generalhappiness, when relevant teacher-perceived academic factors, schoolclimate factors, and the school satisfaction variable were held equiva-lent. Since performance in mathematics plays an important role in thehigh-stakes college entrance exams for Taiwanese senior high schoolstudents, it is reasonable to speculate whether a mathematics teacher'shigh regard for a student might affect his or her perceived generalhappiness. Nevertheless, how objective academic achievement, studentself-perceived academic achievement, and teacher-perceived academicachievement interact with adolescents' general happiness and witheach other remains an area for further research.

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School Climate, School Satisfaction, and General HappinessTeacher academic support, classmate academic support, disturbance

in class, organizational processes, and school satisfaction were all sig-nificantly related to the general happiness of Taiwanese 11th graders.In the regression analyses, when school satisfaction was added to thelast model, teacher academic support disappeared, and classmate aca-demic support, disturbance in class, and organizational processes be-came precüctors with smaller effects. A probable explanation is thatthe variance of these four factors was accounted for by school satisfac-tion for general happiness in the last model, considering that Samdalet al. (1998) have indicated strong correlations among these factors.

Previous literature has provided empirical evidence of the effects ofteacher social support and student social support upon students' gen-eral happiness (Nativig, Albrektsen, & Qvanstrom, 2003; Samdal etal., 19998; Suido & Nuebner, 2005). The present study focused on theacademic dimension of teacher support and classmate support, andthe findings generally concur with results from previous studies. Inaddition, disturbance in class, a third class-level academic-related fac-tor, also was found to be significantly associated with students' generalhappiness, but in a negative way. Similarly, school-level organizationalprocess was found to be a predictor of general happiness, and finally,students' overall appraisals of their happiness with school, measuredby the four dimensions of the degree to which students perceived schoolas a happy place, a boring place, a place for making friends, or a placefor learning, was the greater predictor of students' general happinessin this study, even though this linkage had not been explored before.

In conclusion, academic achievement factors, school climate factors,and most importantly, school satisfaction were found to have a signifi-cant impact upon Taiwanese 11th graders' general happiness. Thisstudy, as a secondary analysis utilizing a large-scale survey con-strained by time, is limited in its measurement. Only a single itemwas used to measure the dependent variable (i.e., general happiness).In addition, some probable, relevant independent variables, such asstudent self-perceived academic achievement and unreasonable job de-mands, were not included in the questionnaire. However, this studydeserves attention because it adds to the literature on the relationsbetween academic factors and adolescents' general happiness. Some ofthe findings of this study are consistent with those in the literatureand some extend established accounts, while others point to futureresearch directions.

990

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